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Last week, Lauren Hill of Mount St. Joseph University courageously took the floor for her first college game, refusing to let an inoperable brain tumor keep her from achieving her dream – and WNBA stars Elena Delle Donne and Tamika Catchings were on hand to lend their support.

Sun-Dream Preview

Posted Jul 07 2014 1:16PM

The only Eastern Conference team the first-place Atlanta Dream have yet to defeat this season is the Connecticut Sun.

Having Angel McCoughtry at full strength this time figures to boost their chances of changing that.

The Dream look to avenge a loss to the Sun from last month when they host Tuesday night's meeting at Georgia Tech.

Connecticut (9-10) won 85-76 at home over Atlanta on June 1. McCoughtry scored a season-low seven points on 2-of-14 shooting, and coach Michael Cooper said afterward that his star was hampered by a back problem.

McCoughtry's condition must be improving since she was named conference player of the month in June by averaging 19.6 points - also her average for the season as she leads the East in scoring.

McCoughtry had 16 points along with plenty of help in Saturday's 86-73 home win over Washington. Sancho Lyttle scored 18 and Tiffany Hayes also had 16 as the Dream placed five players in double digits in points.

Atlanta (12-5) had 14 of its 18 fast-break points in a second half in which it outscored the Mystics 46-33.

Lyttle said the strong second half was a result of how Cooper makes the players, "run so much (in practice) that other teams cannot keep up with us. We run, run, run and when we're tired, we run some more."

The Sun ended a season-high four-game slide with Saturday's 78-76 victory at Tulsa. Renee Montgomery scored the winning basket on a drive with 5.8 seconds left.

Katie Douglas scored 18 points as Connecticut avenged a 96-83 home loss to the Shock two days earlier. Douglas called out her teammates after that defeat.

"It's no fun losing," said Douglas, averaging 21.3 points in three games this month. "I felt like we were definitely on a skid. I just implored them to have as much energy as we possibly could. We knew we could get the job done. We went on a six-game winning streak earlier so we knew we could play at a much higher form. We took this like it was our last game."

Montgomery came off the bench for 15 points - her second-highest total this year after she scored 18 in the first meeting with the Dream.

Sun forward Chiney Ogwumike had 18 points and 10 rebounds in that win for one of her seven double-doubles, fourth-most in the league.

Connecticut has dropped its last three visits to Atlanta. This one is at Georgia Tech, where the Dream will play their next three home games since their regular home court at Philips Arena is unavailable.

Copyright 2014 by STATS LLC and Associated Press. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and Associated Press is strictly prohibited

McCoughtry paces Dream past Connecticut

By GEORGE HENRYPosted Jul 08 2014 10:31PM

''We always take it upon ourselves to have a good defensive game because we know that's what creates our offense,'' Hayes said. ''We definitely wanted to work hard on the defensive end tonight.''

Angel McCoughtry scored 12 of her 22 points in the third quarter, Hayes added 17 points and the Atlanta Dream beat the Connecticut Sun 83-71 on Tuesday night.

The Dream (13-5) have won two straight and four of five, retaining their 4 1/2-game lead over Indiana in the Eastern Conference. The Fever beat Tulsa 78-76.

Atlanta's defense held Connecticut to 39 percent from the field, dropping the Sun to 1-7 this year when they finish under 40 percent.

''We did a good job defensively on certain players, limiting their shots,'' Cooper said. ''Each game is important for us because it's leading us on the path to where we want to end up, and that's a championship.''

Sun rookie Chiney Ogwumike, the WNBA's No. 1 overall draft pick, finished with 19 points and 12 rebounds and Alex Bentley added 19 points. Connecticut (9-11) has lost five of six and dropped into a tie for third place in the East with Chicago, 5 games behind Atlanta.

''I made a personal goal to play harder in the second half and had the support of my teammates,'' Ogwumike said. ''But I think (the Dream) controlled the tempo because they played like a team, they celebrated together, and that's one thing that we're trying to do consistently. They did it for 40 minutes. We did it for about 25 minutes.''

The Sun's Katie Douglas, who began the game with 27 3-pointers in her last 10 games, hit her third 3 to cut lead to 51-43 midway through the third, but Connecticut never got any closer.

Atlanta went on a 16-6 run that included seven points and two rebounds by McCoughtry and Shoni Schimmel's 3-pointer.

In a nine-point loss at Connecticut on June 1, McCoughtry was suffering from a back injury and scored a season-low seven points on 2-for-14 shooting from the field.

Other than taking a fall and having to be helped up and escorted off the floor by trainers late in the second, McCoughtry seemed to have everything working in her favor this time. The WNBA's two-time defending scoring champion flashed her athleticism on a give-and-go underneath with Erika de Souza early in the third, putting back de Souza's missed layup attempt for a 47-34 lead.

Connecticut's Alyssa Thomas, the league's No. 4 overall draft pick, was 0 for 7 from the floor and went scoreless for the first time in 20 games this season.

''She's like a banger down there,'' McCoughtry said. ''She likes to be tough. We just had to body her up a little bit. We gave Katie a couple of 3s that of course we didn't want to give up, but I think we picked it up in the second half defensively.''

Douglas finished with 16 points.

Sancho Lyttle and de Souza combined for 23 points and 14 rebounds for Atlanta.

The game was the first of three Dream home dates at Georgia Tech because of a scheduling conflict at Philips Arena.

Copyright 2014 by STATS LLC and Associated Press. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and Associated Press is strictly prohibited